Lots of rambling, not enough ninjas.

Tag Archives: college

If college is anything like college orientation, its going to be an interminable 4 years.

2 days. No tacos. Or ramen. Only drawling speakers, mindless pacing, and a lot of avoiding people. For the most part, I do not mix well with people my age. Usually I’m an invisible ninja who doesn’t have to deal with eyes, but orientation was like a crappy made-for-tv movie where I was the outcast main character the audience loves but the movie mates despise. Girls glared. Boys stared. Somehow I felt simultaneously viewed as normal and weird. Pretty sure a couple of my groupmates thought I was mentally-handicapped. I probably was handicapped from lack of sleep and creeping social anxiety…and the lack of food.

Besides the never-ending speeches on how us freshmen are most likely going to die our first year of college because we know nothing except how to booze and drive cars off of roads, orientation was okay. And by “okay” I mean “I don’t know how to process any of this so I’d rather curl up into fetal position and watch documentaries on insects.” Yeah, that happened.

Firstly, I got lost. So lost. So many times. Right off the bat I spent an hour and a half in 110 degree weather searching for the building. After my panicked father called and spent 45 minutes guiding me to the building (I had no map. Or sense of directions), I arrived in a state of sweaty glory, pissed at the college for sucky parking but relieved I didn’t have to interact with other human beings and ask for directions. Later that night I couldn’t find my car, so I spent 2 hours honing my navigation skills and becoming a master of the college map. In a way I learned more wandering around than I did listening to the orientation lectures. It was almost fun. I just told my cramping feet that we were being pirates going on a treasure hunt for facial wash and pajamas. After narrowly escaping the clutches of a speeding bus, I located my car, retrieved my luggage, and headed for the dorm where kids were partying and drinking on the lawn while dancing to Beast’s “Beautiful Night.”

That was probably the weirdest part of the whole orientation experience. I’m used to teenagers getting crazy and breaking rules, but its always done with the notion that somewhere out there some no-fun adult is trying to stop you. But not this time. Nobody was telling us to go to bed or stop partying, because we were the adults now. This freedom was intoxicating. Literally. But our future is now in our hands, and nobody is responsible for us but us. We are the future, and we say its a freaking 아름다운 밤이야 and we are going to get crazy because WE ARE ADULTS NOW, DAMMIT.

Welcome to college.

P.S. I didn’t party. I fell asleep. Because I freaking love sleep. Welcome to REAL WORLD college.